Protected
by The Mad Hatter's Sister
Summary: Elena and Damon live in a society ruled by the vampires. Damon is an Empath and who punishes humans by Bestowing pain. Elena is a frequent, but he can't seem to get her out of his head. She's unlike any of the other humans he's dealt with. So what happens when society threatens to destroy Elena? Will Elena find her self Protected by the Vampire she comes to love, or abandoned?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Elena (human) and Damon (vampire) live in a society ruled by the vampires. While there is no capitol punishment for humans or vampires (life is too precious for it to be destroyed) certain vampires are gifted with the ability to transfer emotion and pain through a sort of telepathic connection which requires a physical touch. Vampires with this ability are called Empaths, the "gifts" they give are called Bestowals.

**Elena's POV**

Elena dropped her head as the dark haired man dropped her hands again. Her body was again set on fire, every nerve screamed at her in agony. Elena just worked on counting and biting her lip so that she would not give the heartless monsters the tears and shrieks they desired to hear.

**Damon's POV**

Damon tried to watch the blonde woman with mild disinterest, as he was supposed to, but inwardly, he was fascinated. She hasn't cried, begged for it to stop, or even whimpered. How does she exercise such control? Damon mused.  
"One more should do it Empath. Except," the dark skinned Vampire paused, "give the human a Woman's Anguish. Yes, that will do nicely." A deep smirk set on the dark Vampire's face, and Damon had to smash his lips tightly together to stop himself from debating with his Superior.

Damon picked up the blonde woman's hands again._ Wow, she has really soft hands. That skin... I wonder what the rest of her feels like... What?! No. This is a human. Beneath you. Even if her long fingers would feel wonderful running through your hair... STOP! Focus! "Woman's Anguish." What's that?_

Two Bestowed memories bubbled to the surface and he could feel the automatic surge of energy flow down his arms. He placed her hands on either side of her head covering them with his own and worked on not getting distracted at the softness of her hair. The familiar blue glow emanated from his hands and encompassed Elena's head and Damon could feel the energy fading from his being. Damon dropped his hands and was taken aback as the woman sank to her knees and covered her face with her hands and... And...

Sobbed.

Damon didn't know what to do. She had never even flinched before when he'd given her physical pain, but she breaks at THIS? Damon reviewed the memories he'd given her and felt himself pulled into the familiar dream state that the memories provided.

_Kathryn sat on the ground drenched in the blood of her only child and clutched the lifeless body, rocking the baby back and forth. Her tears mixing with the dampness of the rain that pounded around her._

Damon had to resist covering his ears as a glass shattering shriek of despair tore from the sobbing woman. Damon realized he gave her the grief and sorrow of a young mother whose child had been slaughtered. How horrific and... And... He couldn't even think of the right words to describe the despair.  
The other memory he gave her showed a young woman sobbing on the floor of her flat...

_Bonnie collapsed on the floor and felt her tears ruining her makeup and dropped the letter she had in her trembling hands. She didn't care. It hurt. She felt betrayed. She was heartbroken._

Damon stepped around the distraught woman and picked up the letter on the floor.

"Bonnie,  
I'm leaving. I can't pretend to love you anymore, or even pretend to tolerate you anymore. You are not what I want. Anjelica is. She and I have slept together and she's pregnant. I want to be with her, not you. I never wanted you anyway.  
Goodbye,  
John H."

Damon was sucked back into reality before he could ponder the memory because the sobbing woman was been carted away by two guards back to her flat in the village. She looked desperate, and as if feeling him stare at her, she looked right at him. Her dark blue eyes locking with the amber of Damon's and a funny, unfamiliar emotion engulfed him. Regret. Guilt. He shook himself and the mud colored Vampire waved Damon away and Damon exited back into the hallway that led to his car.

Damon didn't think as he drove to his villa, he just drove. But when he walked in, all of those pesky complicated thoughts crashed in on him.

_Guilt? Regret? I've never felt regret for what I've done to a human ever, and I shouldn't! She's a stupid human! But she's different from other humans, she NEVER cried, never begged for it to stop. Why now? Why? Who is this woman?_  
_That last question burrowed deep into his mind and he stalked over to the computer to look at her file._

*two hours later*

Damon huffed with frustration. He had discovered that not knowing the woman's name made it difficult to find her file. He had been browsing through all the photo's of tall, blonde, blue eyed women, but couldn't find her. He shoved himself away from his computer and put his face in his hands in frustration. He had no idea how to find her. How to find this mysterious woman who was haunting his thoughts and making him feel all these stupid emotions.

"Maybe I'll continue after a nap," he sighed in defeat. And so, he sauntered to his over sized bedroom and collapsed in exhaustion from the days efforts onto his king-size white bed.

**Elena's POV**

Elena sat on her floor with her back to the wall. She couldn't understand. That Vampire was her tormenter. She should hate him. He even made her lose it, of course he didn't give her physical pain, but... But... She didn't even want to think about the sorrow those two women had in them, and immediately she began to tear up again. Elena shoved the thoughts from her head and instead focused on the amber-eyed Vampire with long, dark, curly hair she could run her fingers through forever, and how his strong hands touched hers with such gentleness and tenderness she could have let his hands stay on her's for hours... She was being ridiculous. She knew. _He's just doing his job. And I'm a human. He probably hates my guts. _But she couldn't get the way he looked at her when she was being dragged away, and she swore she saw remorse in those eyes. _As if... As if he regretted what he did... As if he wanted to make my tears go away..._

Elena continued to ponder her mysterious tormenter until sleep overtook her battered form...

A/N: Please be kind by rating and reviewing!


	2. Chapter 2

Elena stretched her arms over head as after she dismounted from her perch in the oak tree. She landed with a muted thud on the compacted ground and headed down the grassy hill back towards her flat.

It was her day off from working at the human hospital and she was relishing her freedom, especially since the weather and day in general were just lovely.

It had been three weeks since her last Punishment, and she knew she had another one coming... It was just a matter of time before she got caught again.

As Elena crossed the threshold of her home, as if sensing her arrival, her phone jumped and rang. She wanted to ignore it. She wanted so bad to pretend it wasn't ringing. She knew who would be calling. She knew what they wanted. And she wasn't in the mood to deal with it. But. It was her duty. It was her responsibility to her fellow humans to answer the phone. People depended on her to answer that phone and take up the mission she was about to be given. People needed her to do just what she was about to be asked.

In a sigh of resignation, she sauntered over to the phone and picked it up.

"Gilbert residence. How may I help you?" Elena politely asked, ask was custom, but her gut knotted up and turned to rocks. She knew exactly what "help" was needed of her.

"We need another run tonight. In the Lockwoods Terrace division. Get about 20 houses worth, then redistribute in the Shants. Leave the food in the bushes around the Weeping Willow," replied the deeply male voice on the other end.

"Done."

No sooner had the word left her mouth that the dial tone sounded. Even though she wanted to throw the phone at the wall, she set it back down gently. Elena collapsed on the bed behind her and tried to process her new mission. Elena wasn't going to share her distain at having to pull off another collection theft to another soul, because those families in the Shants needed this food. This was the third one this week, and she was so going to get caught.

She thought back as to the necessity that became these thefts.

When the Vampires took over they mandated the food that people could have. It was based on a house, not it's number of occupants. Food was delivered to each house daily, and the extras were collected at the end of the day. So families of 8 got the same amount of food as a single person, and couples or single people always had extra food to collect at the end of the day. The people in the Shants where the collections of such families, the large ones that never had enough to eat, and the "food rich" people lived in the divisions like Lockwoods Terrace.

At first when Elena volunteered to steel for those hungry families, she had delusions of a Robin Hood-esque life, and it stayed that way till she got caught the first time. She didn't get caught until she got home, and she was glad for that. Elena had never been to the Shants before, and had never seen how much need there was. Her heart broke to see the joy on a two year old's face, because she gave him a ham sandwich. She, even now could see his black curls framing his face, and his dimples, and how his brown eyes sparkled. She had never had direct transactions with Vampires before then. They didn't scare her now, but her first Punishment for "breaking the law." She didn't want the Empath to see her fear, her trembling lip, or how much her insides screamed in protest against her. She didn't leave her house for a week after that.

Elena focused on the present mission. She had been caught twelve, thirteen, or fourteen times now. She lost count after the 6th and lost hope of an general number after the 10th. The Punishment didn't faze her anymore, she was adjusted to the pain, but it was that Vampire. That Empath! Lately, she almost wanted to get caught, just so she could see him, his perfect features, his strong, but gentle hands... She had to stop herself again, before she got totally distracted. People needed food.

She sighed in frustration again and looked at her watch. It was time to get going if she was going to beat the food collectors.

As she walked out the door, she noticed that this time, she wasn't as nervous as she normally was when going out on a raid.

"I might get to see Damon again..." she whispered, but the thought echoed through her thoughts for quite some time


	3. Chapter 3

Elena's POV

Elena's heartbeat echoed and banged around in her ears as her feat slammed against the moist grass of the well-manicured lawns that comprised of Lockwood Terrace. She felt the sweat run down her back and down the sides of her face. She quickly darted towards a tree seeing that as her best chance of cover and faced the dark bark nearly collapsing against it. The adrenaline and excitement that pooled in her veins met the cold chill of the night air slapping an icy focus onto the task at hand. Slipping her dark ski mask over her head to hide her blond hair, she took one deep breath before peering out from behind the tree to survey the closest houses. Two of them were dark on the inside, leading her to believe that either the couples they housed were not in or were already sleeping. Three more had lights on inside and the other two had porch lights on. Elena sighed in frustration then stared at her shoes, she wanted to get this done and over with. Zipping up her jacket as high as it could go, taking one more deep breath, she took one step back and looked up. She ran.

Damon's POV

He hated patrol duty. It was such a menial thing to do, especially with his gift. _You'd think they'd appreciate me more, with all I do for them_, he thought to himself. He knew he really shouldn't complain, these chores needed to be done to inspire fear in the humans to prevent them from uprising, but he still hated doing. Damon looked back at the email that told him where he was patrolling.

"Great," he muttered "I get the Shants." Damon laughed a little at the human nickname that he used, they used to call themselves Hooverville like in olden days, but apparently Shants had a better ring to it. Damon racked his name for what the nickname of such an area was before the Takeover

"…Hood…"

"…Ghetto…"

Images flashed before his eyes.

Murder, gangs, rape, theft, assault and battery, tears, pain, death, dark, dreary, gunfire, screaming children.

Damon shuddered at the horrors that existed before his kind came into power. Humans were savage and brutal, especially towards their own kind.

Damon sighed in resignation, got up, grabbed his keys and headed to the garage.

Elena's POV

Her legs ached and her back screamed at her as she ran with her bundle of stolen food. It was now half past midnight and she know just needed to get out of the Terrace without being caught.

Dashing back to the tree she had used before she started thieving that night she set down her bundle and collapsed completely against its strong trunk. Her legs buzzed, her head pounded and her heartbeat thumped throughout her entire aching body. She closed her eyes and waited for her panting to turn into gasping before opening them again.

For once actually looking at how much food she had stolen. Her bag looked like one of the bags that Santa Claus had in some old Christmas movie, overflowing and bulging. She surprised herself then actually counted in her head how many houses she robbed that would actually bring that much by way of spoils.

"Twenty six… Thirty four… Forty eight. Forty eight houses." Pride swelled inside her chest, until she looked at her watch.

"What the heck?! It's almost one am!" Elena jumped up and grabbed her back in panic, the collectors would be around in about an hour, so she had to get going. Looking around her to make sure the coast was clear, she dashed out from her cover behind the tree and made for the tree line half a mile back that would be her guide to where she stashed her car a mile away.

…

Her legs continued to burn with the added weight of her plunder. Once her car was in view she slowed down to a less frantic pace, until she was simply walking. She opened her trunk and stuck her bag inside.

After slamming the trunk door down with as much force as she could muster, she finally let her fatigue set in and took off her ski mask. She finally registered how sweaty she was, her black t-shirt clung to her in not very feminine ways her hair that wasn't plastered to her face and neck was matted and stuck out in not attractive ways. Once she sat in her car, she pulled down her mirror and registered her face. It was red. She had the beginnings of back under her eyes. Her nose was running. But her eyes, that mixture of dark blue, grey, and green were wild with excitement.

She laughed at herself. Back in the day she would have thought that she were pretty, but now she realized just how plain she was in comparison to the Vampires. They were perfect. Perfectly sculpted. Beautiful.

That Empath's face floated in front of her eyes again. His dark curly hair… His amber eyes… His strong but gently hands… And the bizarre look of remorse that crossed his face as she was dragged away.

Elena shook her head violently and turned the car on and headed in the direction of the Shants.

Damon POV

The dark night was still and quiet. No lights were on. Not a sound.

Calm.

And he was bored. "What a waste of my freakin night." He continued to drive when he heard what sounded like a gunshot.

**1 Minute earlier…**

Elena POV

She was almost at the drop off point, she could see the Weeping Willow, it had to be only a couple hundred yards away. She slowed to a fast walk and got lower to the ground, the image of a stalking lion came to mind, but she quickly just focused on the Willow.

_The Bush, where's the bloody Bush?_ She screamed in her head as panic yet again set in. Was it the wrong Weeping Willow? Was she not in the Shants? She didn't know.

She scampered over to the Weeping Willow and set down her load at its base and began searching on foot the Bush that she seemed to be unable to find.

When…

Know if she hadn't been on alert she would have never heard the click, the familiar click of a gun being cocked.

Elena spun around in terror and flung her arms above her head. "I'm just here droppin' off food! Don't shoot!" But the invisible gun and invisible shooter were nowhere. She started to back away when…

**Present…**

Damon leapt out of his car and used his nose to find the source of the gunpowder than using Vampire speed ran off in direction of the gunshot, when he stopped dead in his tracks and sniffed the air again.

_Blood._ Another sniff confirmed it not only was the burnt smell in the air, but the metallic tang that was oh so delicious. Damon's vision went red and he sped off towards the scent of the mouthwatering taste…

Damon stopped at the scene before him and his vision went back to normal.

_It's that girl._

Damon had to shake his head again to clear the bloodlust from his mind. He looked at the girl and immediately felt panic.

She had been shot in her midsection and was choking on her blood, tears running down her face.

_What do I do?!_ He had never experienced anything like this. Glancing around him a horrible realization dawned on him.

There was another bad of stolen food. She had been plundering again. So he couldn't call an ambulance, she would be executed for this. This would be her twenty fifth misconduct, and after that… He mentally choked at the thought of what would a wait her. Looking back at her he noticed her go limp and her breathing start to slow in minute increments…


End file.
